Lead with Love: The immense power of a daily practice

I have three-year-old twins and a new puppy. To say that sitting quietly in meditation is challenging is a true statement for me. I also run a non-profit, have an adult dog, aging parents, a husband, plenty of friends, and I like to get some exercise here and there. I have a lot of help, and still, things that make me a better person like meditation, yoga, journaling, self reflection, and therapy are often some of the first things to go when I get busy and stressed.
And, that is exactly when I need them the most!
I rededicated myself to a daily practice first thing in the morning in the spring of 2024. I had done this in the past, but I’d lost the discipline to keep it going consistently after having twins and feeling sleep deprived. If it was a choice between sleep and getting up for my practice I often choose to sleep. Sleep is incredibly important, and I think most everyone I know is sleep deprived. It’s not easy to make time for ourselves. What I didn’t realize in giving up my daily practice was that I steadily became more reactive, more judgmental, and more oriented towards what’s wrong vs. what’s right. This happened so subtly I didn’t really notice it and didn’t think it was noticeable to anyone else — until I started my practice again and came home to my heart, my center place, and realized how far away I was.
Because I have a busy household, I had to wake up earlier than I wanted to to recommit to my practice. For me, my daily practice is a combo of simple yoga, meditation, and some sort of writing and reflection. It’s juicy stuff. It’s a truth serum. I see, sense, feel, and hear things in that hour that are genuine and true. That truth guides my way each day. This practice helps me immeasurably to discern my yeses and nos, which subsequently determine the quality of my life! This is a huge area of growth for me to really feel into what it is I want versus going along with whatever makes things easier to avoid conflict. My daily practice gives me courage and awareness to be a truer version of myself. Yes!
As I age, I am more and more interested in authenticity and being the most true version of myself. I trust in the unique design that went into making me, and I am endlessly curious what this me is meant to be doing. I can only know that by listening. Meditation is listening. I am just starting to get more comfortable with prayer and that is becoming part of my practice, too. It’s powerful. Because I have had an aversion to religious dogma I was turned off by prayer until more recently. I could listen to the universe, be guided by spirit, but to actually pray to God felt foreign to me.
I am getting more and more captivated and delighted by God, and my relationship to it is deepening. It is not religious for me. It is personal, intimate, and nourishing on the deepest level. This is the gift of my morning practice. It is the most seductive relationship I’ve had yet. It is subtle, yet, like water, penetrating. A consistent practice, day after day, changes what was once a wetland of dispersed thought and action into a torrent of energy heading toward the ocean of awareness that is God, Source, Spirit, Universe, or any name you call it as long as it is synonymous with Love.
Gina Murdock is the founder of Lead with Love, an Aspen, Colo. based non-profit org dedicated to shifting culture from fear to love and a board member of CASA of the Ninth dedicated to advocating for children who are neglected and abused. More info at www.ileadwithlove.org
Colorado U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert leads effort to remove federal protections from gray wolves
Gray wolves could be removed from the federal Endangered Species Act under a bill reintroduced by Republican U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin on Friday.